Any idea? A full set of Glass Armor in Oblivion is probably lighter than a Glass longsword. Doesn't make much sense to me. Is there something in the lore about this or is it just gameplay balance?

I've wondered the same, I don't know if there is anything lore related, but in Morrowind glass armor and weapons both weighed next to nothing.

Glass armor is, well...light so I wouldn't want to make a glass armor piece that is thick and heavy, but you do want thick and heavy when it comes to weapons so I think thats is why there is that light/heavy deal going on.

It's a blip due to the wholly linear nature of Oblivion's equipment scaling. All weapons were stronger, heavier and more durable than the previous level weapons, to the point that normal equipment may as well have just been numbered.

In Morrowind, Glass longswords were super-light, super-sharp (I may be wrong, but I seem to recall glass having a higher attack power when at 100% condition) and very fragile (like four hits kind of fragile) because Morrowind didn't have a level-by-level scaled tier of items. It was a lot more in-line with the armor and with common sense as far as weapon progression went.

Hopefully they change the weight thing it never really made any sense. At least they got rid of weapon decay, I mean I'd rather they just toned it down but having a weapon that could only do four hits is just stupid.

Game mechanics.

In reality, the weight of weapons in TES do not really reflect the weight they should be IRL. Also to note, the weight system in TES isn't to scale with real world weights. It's just game mechanics to arbitrary make a weapon better, but also forcing you to haul less loot.

I dunno know. Those four hits could deal some pretty extreme damage. And it wasn't usually literally 4 hits. It made sense as well, a high-powered, lightweight, GLASS weapon shouldn't be super durable, magically enhanced or otherwise

Right but it's not practical, why would you but as much effort and craftsmenship as is necessary to make a weapon that's only going to last a little while before you need it to be repaired. I've always felt that instead of giving the weapon statistical weaknesses for balance make it crazy rare and hard to get. So maybe there's like five glass swords in the game.

Because it only takes those five hits to slay your foes. Also, because repairing is easy.

Right but what if you have six foes. And repairing only works outside of combat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOxGL5G8Pbk